It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been a year \u2026 it\u2019s hard to believe it happened at all \u2026 it\u2019s hard to believe he\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A year later and the music world is still in mourning over the loss of Prince Rogers Nelson. That loss is most felt in his hometown of Minneapolis and its surrounding communities. Around the world people miss the music. Here we miss the man. Here the loss was personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The connections are endless. At the Minneapolis Urban League there\u2019s Linda Anderson, executive secretary to the Office of the President, who was a longtime friend and early bandmate of Prince, playing keyboards and drums. There\u2019s Paul Peterson who you can catch from time-to-time performing at the Dakota Jazz Club who was a member of Prince\u2019s The Family band. There\u2019s Bro. Jules over at KMOJ. Jules was the exclusive DJ for Prince for quite some time. More importantly, he was his friend. Of course there\u2019s Jellybean Johnson of The Time and Morris Day and The Time. Some of the Minnesota musical acts that have a direct lineage to Prince include The Time, Mint Condition, King, Mazarati, Alexander O\u2019Neal, #MPLS (and Jesse Larson, currently on \u201cThe Voice\u201d), Sounds of Blackness, Dr. Mambo\u2019s Combo (Michael Bland), DJs Dudley D and Fundraiser and so many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond those in the industry, people such as Sharon Smith-Akinsanya, founder, People of Color Career Fair and former regional development director of the United Negro College Fund and Anthony Newby, executive director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) once knew Prince by the title of boss. There seems to be an infinite number of former schoolmates who attended Minneapolis Central High School with his royal badness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after that rainy Thursday of April 21 in 2016 the benevolence of Prince came to light with person after person sharing stories of Prince\u2019s charity. He didn\u2019t want it publicized \u2026 he just wanted to spread good will. Beyond the celebrity, that\u2019s who Prince really was. He was kind. He was funny. He was warm. He was a brilliant. He was as regal and as royal as his name suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he is missed \u2026 oh so missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, Michael Jackson was king, and James Brown was the godfather \u2026 but Prince was the greatest. And he will forever be missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Events commemorating the anniversary of Prince<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several events are taking place around town to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Prince\u2019s death. The family of Prince is hosting a multi-day concert, Celebration 2017, at Paisley Park in Chanhassen. The event takes place Thursday through Sunday and features The Revolution, Morris Day and The Time, New Power Generation, Liv Warfield, Shelby J and 3rdEyeGirl. Tickets are $549 for the only remaining set of shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First Avenue is hosting dance parties on Friday and Saturday with Friday\u2019s 18-plus event taking place inside the Mainroom at 9 p.m. and Saturday\u2019s event \u2013 an all ages outdoor affair \u2013 taking place from 5 p.m. \u2013 10 p.m. Tickets for Friday\u2019s event are $10 and $15. Saturday\u2019s event is sold out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thee Urbane Life is hosting Thee Beautiful Ones on Saturday at Five Event Center, 2917 Bryant Ave. S. in Uptown, featuring DJ Chuck Chizzle and DJ Fundraiser (who spun for Prince) spinning Prince and Prince inspired music. Admission is $15 and $20 and a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Billingsley School of Music and Art (BSOMA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sunday G Sharp and the Bizne$$ presents the Purple Party at Lee\u2019s Liquor Lounge, 101 Glenwood Ave., Minneapolis. The band will be playing songs either written or performed by Prince.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been a year \u2026 it\u2019s hard to believe it happened at all \u2026 it\u2019s hard to believe he\u2019s gone. A year later and the music world is still in mourning over the loss of Prince Rogers Nelson. That loss is most felt in his hometown of Minneapolis and its surrounding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[38,2238,2667],"class_list":["post-4286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-minneapolis","tag-minneapolis-urban-league","tag-prince-rogers-nelson","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-11.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4288,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions\/4288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}